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Show By GENERAL BOOTH SIRE, Have this consolation in the supreme agony of your dynasty and of your people, that you have enthused with new life and force the great principle that men ought not only to love their country, but their kind. We of the Salvation Army pray God that His great Salvation may strengthen you ever to honour Him in Mercy and Righteousness. "WBy PREBENDARY WILSON CARLILE DAVID has fought Goliath. The victory is not yet, but it is coming. The God of.Battles will avenge His shattered houses, the burned and ruined homes, the trampled harvest fields, the slaughtered, outraged, tormented, exiled people, for their eiy has reached Him in His Holy Place. Though the time be long, we shall most surely see a new Belgium arise from the ashes of war, purified, made more noble and strong, uplifted by the fiery trial. And although so many of her soldiers, and others of her bravest and best, must sleep until the Archangel shall sound réveillé, yet their blood has not been shed in vain, for their spirit lives for evermore. God give strength to Belgium's King, people, and Allies to fight on in this righteous cause until complete victory crowns the struggle, made holy by the blood and tears of so great a multitude. _ MW By ALMA E. BELMONT IN expressing my sympathy with the Belgian nation, I am compelled to‘ say there can be no being from any realm calling itself human but feels its very life-blood pulsate with grief and its heart overflow with love for the great manhood of this stricken nation. Words seem poor and lame. This display of courage, this will to carry Right against Might, this defence of country and home, calls for action, imitation. What is any nation, what are any people doing, who stand idly aside, and by their inertia and fear of injury to themselves, permit murder, pillage, and-wilful destruction of a land of peace, of honest industry, of a God- fcaring race ? What are we doing in Washington P Where is our boasted CIVilisation? Where is Christianity? Is not our brother being annihilated? Why is not our hand stretched out to shield him? How much longer will the strong and mighty stand aside and see the brave and free trampled under foot by a monster power intoxicated with arrogance P If the United States believes in democracy ; if she stands for States' rights ; ll she believes in the defence of national honour and political liberty, the crime committed against Belgium demands such action from our great Republic that this murderous carnage shall stop. 98 By FLORENCE L. BARCLAY IN Hoe VINCE T0 I[is Majesty the King of the Belgians SIRE, AS my contribution to the tribute of universal sympathy and admiration now presented to Your Majesty, I have been asked to write a short story, bearing upon the great events of the past months. In humbly accepting this privilege, I cannot but be conscious that this is not a time for fiction ; therefore the story which I now have the honour of offering to Your Majesty is fact-true in its main details-given as it reached me, in the sublime sirrplicity of a soldier's letter from the front. During the masterly retreat of the allied forces after the battle of Mons, a young British officer was ordered to round up stragglers in a small town, which had just been evacuated by our troops. There was no time to lose. The enemy, in overwhelming force, was sweeping down upon the defenceless place. Shells were falling on all sides. The distant rumble of a relentless approach drew, every moment nearer. The young oflicer, marching his little company rapidly along the deserted streets, crossed a cobbled square, and came upon a municipal building, temporarily converted into a hospital. He stepped within. " Any men here, able to march?" he began-then paused abruptly and looked around him. There was no question of stragglers, here. Scores of wounded and of dying lay helpless upon the floor, each where he had been hurriedly placed. A little party of British Red Cross nurses moved among them, doing their utmost to tend, relieve, and comfort. While the tall youth in khaki stood silent in the doorway, a shell shrilled over the building, crashed into a house close by, and burst with a deafening noise. A moment of tense silence. Then 21 Tommy laughed. " It'll save the doctors trouble, if a few of them things come in here," he said. " Do our amputating for nothing, they will I " The Sister in charge of the little band of English nurses chanced to be kneeling near the door, supporting the head of a dying lad. He pushed away the cup she was holding to his lips and gazed into her face, sudden terror in his eyes. " They won't shoot on the Red Cross, will they, nurse? " he whispered. " Ain't we safe under the flag ? " Her quiet smile was reassuring. " Perfectly safe, my lad. Don't you worry. Drink this, and lie still." Then, looking up, she saw the young officer standing in the doorway. He raised his hand in salute. " I suppose there is nothing I can do," he said. " I am rounding up stragglers 99 |